Although viral marketing has garnered a great deal of attention in the trade press, almost nothing is known about the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of the people (those sending the email to others) that constitute the essential component of any such strategy. This article reports the results of three studies that examine consumer responses and motivations to pass along email. Implications for target selection and message creation are discussed for advertising practitioners interested in implementing viral efforts, and suggestions for future research relating to computer-mediated consumer-to-consumer interactions are presented for academic researchers.These studies were sponsored by Planetfeedback.com (www.planetfeedback.com), an internet-based infomediary company based in Cincinnati.An earlier version of this work will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book, Online Consumer Psychology, C. Haugvedt, K. Macleit, and R. Yalch (eds.).

Teenagers currently spend an estimated $153 billion a year on everything from computers to cars to clothes (Brand, 2000). Trend conscious teens are very active in utilizing the media and advertising in seeking out the latest products, services, and fashions (Zollo, 1995). A greater understanding of teens' role model influences can help organizations and their advertising agencies more effectively target and communicate to this growing market. In this study, we examine the effect of athlete role models on teenagers' purchase intentions and behaviors. Results from a survey of 218 adolescents are discussed with implications and future research directions for advertising and sports marketing researchers.

Within a short period of just over a decade, IMC has swept around the world and become the accepted norm of businesses and apparently the agencies that service their needs. Here we critically consider IMC in terms of (1) development, (2) impact on marketing communications, (3) barriers to further progress, and (4) current location identification and likely development in the future. Evidently, IMC is here to stay. But there are problems. Not least of these is the apparent reluctance of many businesses to adopt anything more than an inside-out approach to IMC—in other words, bundling promotional mix elements together so they look and sound alike. But, IMC has to move beyond this stage if it is to radically change the face of communications and marketing.

As consumer researchers we are all probably pleased about some of the recent progress in the area of understanding and researching consumers. A variety of approaches and methodologies are now available that examine the consumer from every conceivable angle. To my mind, however, no approach has been more enigmatic or has been held with such high expectations as that of personality research borrowed from the field of psychology.

The whole concept of personality and its relationship to how consumers respond has always had a lot of intuitive appeal to consumer researchers. If—as this feeling goes—we can only isolate and understand the basic driving force that predisposes consumers to act in certain ways, and personality traits must be one of those driving forces, then our jobs, of course, could be made much easier.

The authors consider the role of gender as it relates to e-commerce and offer a conceptual framework that attempts to explain why women are less satisfied than men with the online shopping experience. Perceived emotional benefits are discussed as a primary reason women lack support for e-commerce activity. Additional concepts in our model include trust (i.e., skepticism) and practicality (i.e., convenience). Our survey findings revealed that these three concepts—emotion, trust, and convenience—predicted women's dissatisfaction (and men's satisfaction) with online shopping, as well as men and women's actual shopping behavior. The authors offer ideas to help e-marketers form stronger emotional bonds with female shoppers.

In this article the authors demonstrate how a customer lifetime value approach can provide a better assessment of advertising effectiveness that takes into account postpurchase behaviors such as word-of-mouth. Although for many advertisers word-of-mouth is viewed as an alternative to advertising, the authors show that it is possible to quantify the way in which word-of-mouth often complements and extends the effects of advertising. The authors provide a simple approach to the measurement of postpurchase word-of-mouth sales effects and demonstrate how firms may be underestimating advertising effectiveness by ignoring such effects. Their approach illustrates how customer lifetime value models can provide an important tool to assess the long-term effects of advertising campaigns.

Creativity is arguably the most important element in advertising success. This article reviews the trends in creativity research and asks (1) what do we know about advertising creativity, (2) how can we measure it, and (3) how can we enhance and encourage it? After tracking its importance, this article examines how it is defined, the nature of the theories underpinning it, and the various typologies suggested by researchers. The impact of issues such as the environment, management practice, and myths on enhancing and encouraging advertising creativity are assessed. It is argued that, to encourage and enhance creativity, managers should address the effects of self-doubt, fear of risk taking, and fear of opposition and criticism.

One of the older and simpler definitions of Brand Equity was the one coined by David Ogilvy, when he said many years ago:

This could be thought of as the first principle of brand equity— that a brand is different from a product and that the difference is something with which it is invested by the consumer. Most definitions of brand equity concentrate on this difference.

Although it is the incremental, added-value qualities that make brand equity important to us, the term is often used synonymously with the total value of the brand. It is useful therefore to think of the total equity—or value—of a brand consisting of two different sorts of “equities.” The first are those we might call the “fundamental” equities—the classical marketing variables of product, price, and packaging— together with distribution and measured brand image. The second type are the “added value” equities, which are usually much more elusive to define because of their intangible nature.

This article reports the findings of a managerial investigation of key players in the product placement industry, including placement agents, clients, studios and production companies, and research organizations. The evolution of the product placement industry in North America is reviewed, perspectives on the role and objectives product placements serve in the marketing mix are discussed, and current means of assessing product placement efforts examined. The data provide insights on the relationship-driven industry where power, trust, and commitment play an important role. They also suggest recommendations for how participants should plan, use, and evaluate their placement efforts.This research was supported by a grant from the Marketing Science Institute.

Do consumers really care about corporate reputation when it comes to purchasing decisions? This study tests that hypothesis by comparing consumers' perceptions of companies to the consumer equity of brands owned by those companies, using international studies of brand equity and corporate reputation. The results show that poor corporate reputation makes building strong brands difficult, but a good reputation is no guarantee of success.

The elements of corporate reputation that seem to matter most to consumers in practice are perceptions of fairness toward consumers, and perceptions of corporate success and leadership, rather than public responsibility. Consumers want good business practice but when it comes to brand strength and purchasing, more personally relevant factors take precedence. So pushing a corporate social responsibility agenda to consumers may not reap the strongest rewards. But “ethical” brands that bring no penalty in cost or quality are likely to be more successful.

The number of companies sponsoring events has increased over the past decade. Yet, for many firms it is unclear how the effectiveness of event marketing activities can be measured. The study examines outcomes associated with an automobile manufacturer's sponsorship of a six-day charitable sporting event. Data for the study were collected from a sample of 565 spectators in five cities during the six-day event. Results provide evidence for inclusion of event marketing in the company's promotional mix and indicate that experience with the sponsor's products during the event may enhance event outcomes. The role of event marketing as a form of communication is discussed, and recommendations and directions for future research are suggested.

Although the use of shocking content in advertising appeals has been widely adopted, the effectiveness of such communication strategies has not been empirically investigated. In two laboratory studies, conducted in the context of HIV/AIDS prevention, we examine the effectiveness of shock advertising in comparison to the commonly used appeals of fear and information. Our findings suggest that shocking content in an advertisement significantly increases attention, benefits memory, and positively influences behavior among a group of university students.

This article uses the Anholt Nation Brands Index to measure the power and appeal of America's brand image by surveying 10,000 consumers in 10 countries on their perceptions of America's cultural, political, commercial and human assets, investment potential, and tourist appeal. The findings show that while U.S. exports, investment, immigration, tourism, and people rank relatively high among the other nations indexed, the global opinion of U.S. governance and culture and heritage are very low. Recommendations for improving America's global brand image are presented.

Although 90 percent of marketing communication investments are accounted for by investments in brand contacts, i.e., the points at which the consumer and the brand come in contact with each other, until now, there has not been a tool that allows managers to identify, a priori and from a consumer perspective, the most effective set of contacts in which to invest. We describe a tool that we have developed that empowers the brand owners/marketers to (1) identify and select the critical contacts that are relevant for a particular brand, (2) integrate across these key contact points, and (3) deliver brand experience through a relevant and pertinent set of consumer brand encounters at a minimum cost, but with maximal impact. We then discuss how the metrics derived from this tool can be used to inform a variety of important decisions in the context of managing brand contacts. We close with a discussion of some of the regularities that we have uncovered from the over 150 brands that we have audited across numerous markets and categories.

This study presents the first analysis of the impact of NASCAR sponsorship announcements on the stock prices of sponsoring firms. The primary finding of the study—that NASCAR sponsorship announcements were accompanied by the largest increases in shareholder wealth ever recorded in the marketing literature in response to a voluntary marketing program—represents a striking and unambiguous stock market endorsement of the sponsorships. Indeed, the 24 sponsors analyzed in this study experienced mean increases in shareholder wealth of over $300 million dollars, net of all of the costs associated with the sponsorships. A multiple regression analysis of firm-specific stock price changes and select corporate and sponsorship attributes indicates that NASCAR sponsorships with more successful racing teams, corporate (as opposed to product or divisional) sponsorships, and sponsorships with direct ties to the consumer automotive industry are all positively correlated with perceived sponsorship success, while corporate cash flow per share (a well-known proxy for agency conflicts within the firm) is negatively related with shareholder approval.

Online advertising has been with us for over 10 years. During that time two different paradigms have characterized the way the effectiveness of online advertising has been assessed: brand building or direct response. In general the direct response paradigm has become the yardstick of online advertising success due to the universal measurement of click-through. This article proposes that the two paradigms are not contradictory but are in fact complementary and that the applicability of either model depends on the mindset of the audience as much as the intent of the advertisement. The article outlines a conceptual framework that integrates an established brand equity model with different stages of the purchase process and then uses existing learning, new research data, and case studies to illustrate the various ways in which online advertising can help build brands and increase the probability of purchase. The article concludes that click-through is primarily a consequence of the brand building effect combined with a willingness to learn more about the specific brand as a result of an immediate need for a product or service of that type.

The findings demonstrate that simultaneous media usage is a fact, undermining typical media measurements done in isolated environments that neglect the everyday patterns of media users. More importantly, the simultaneous media experience points to the concept of synesthesia as an experiential integrator of differing sensory fields. The experience of simultaneous media foreground/background relationship needs to be incorporated into the media planning and allocation mix if we are to actually address the consumers' media experience with multitasking.

This article is about affective advertising, defined as that which works more on our emotions and feelings than on our knowledge and beliefs. This sort of advertising can be processed effectively at relatively low levels of attention and as a result does not always perform well on recall measures. We compare the most popular recall-based metric—claimed advertising awareness—against an approach that deduces effectiveness from recognition and find claimed advertising awareness seriously underestimates the effectiveness of the advertising tested.

This study investigated determinants of internet users' willingness to pay for online content. A survey of internet users of a clip art website found that they did conduct benefits/costs analysis when evaluating whether to pay for online content. Usage purpose and experience with online purchasing emerged as significant predictors. Further, the study confirmed the existence of “free” mentality among online content users. Managerial implications are explored.

Preparing a media plan aimed at opinion leaders requires accurately identifying and describing the attributes of this target as well as measuring its affinities with different media. Our research findings on women's fashion, particularly magazines, reveal that a media plan targeted at opinion leaders can succeed, that these opinion leaders tend to be positive toward and discuss advertising media, and that they read more women's fashion magazines and have significantly more affinities with such media than nonopinion leaders.